A variety of forms are in daily use that can facilitate a collection of responses from users of the forms. A few examples include forms for educational tests, patient questionnaires used at medical or dental offices, voting ballots, product surveys, consumer preference surveys, requests for services, and job applications. Many of these forms have been designed to allow for the automated collection of the response information using scanners.
For example, answers to closed-ended questions, such as multiple-choice questions, can be obtained using an optical mark recognition (OMR) system. In one such system, a user can record answers by marking specified areas on a form, e.g., in predefined ovals or squares, which correspond to multiple choice answers or true-false answers. The presence of a mark by a test taker, such as a filled-in oval, can be read by a scanner.
Open-ended questions may also be processed with the assistance of a computer system. An open-ended question on a form can allow a responder to formulate a response, as opposed to choosing from a menu of predetermined choices. Some systems can provide for optical character recognition of handwritten text with answers to the open-ended question on the form. Many of these forms are printed on paper and are designed in a format so that scanners and associated software can be used to scan the filled-in form, electronically obtain the response markings, determine the response data, and insert the response data into a database.
Details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and description herein. Other features, aspects, and advantages will be apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.